The China Mail - Giroud strikes late to lift Lille past Monaco, Rennes implode early at Lorient

Earlier, Rennes had two players sent off in the first 10 minutes and four seconds at Lorient and went on to lose 4-0.

The week before Rennes had played an hour a man short but still beaten Marseille 1-0.

"We need aggression," said Rennes coach Habib Beye. "Last year we didn't have enough, now we have too much."

The 38-year-old Giroud, the French national team's all-time leading scorer, was brought in by Lille in part to replace Jonathan David, who was making a scoring Serie A debut for Juventus on Sunday night.

Giroud had scored after 11 minutes of his first match as Lille drew 3-3 at Brest in the first round.

Sunday's was a far cagier match, before Giroud broke the dull deadlock in the 91st minute.

After receiving the ball from Matias Fernandez-Pardo on the penalty spot with his back to goal, the centre forward spun, glanced toward the far post and then, with goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky moving the wrong way, thumped a shot into the middle of the net.

With Monaco pressing frantically, Lille won a penalty on the counter-attack but Giroud swerved his spot-kick over the bar. That left time for Monaco striker Mika Biereth to volley over from close range.

For Rennes the trouble once again started before kick-off.

Last week, central defender Mikayil Faye overslept and missed the season-opening win over Marseille in which another defender Abdelhamid Ait Boudlal was sent off and was suspended for Sunday's game.

With right-back Przemyslaw Frankowski injured, Mousa Al-Tamari was due to take over at wing-back. But the Jordanian arrived late for a pre-match meeting and was dropped by Beye.

Mahdi Camara, a summer arrival from Saint-Etienne, stepped in for his Rennes debut. It lasted four minutes.

Camara caught Lorient's Dermane Karim in the head with his boot and was sent off.

In the 10th minute, Christopher Wooh, the last defender, brought down Aiyegun Tosin who was running in on goal. Wooh was sent off.

- 'Deserved' -

He had come off the bench the previous week when Ait Boudlal saw red in the 31st minute.

"Unfortunately, both red cards were deserved," said Beye.

Statistical service Opta said its Ligue 1 records went back to 1992 and it could find no previous instance of two players from the same team being sent off so soon after the opening whistle.

After an hour's practice playing short-handed last week, the nine men held out until the fourth minute of first-half added time when Sambou Soumano gave the hosts the lead.

The visitors then unravelled. Tosin added a second two minutes into the second half, Pablo Pagis struck in the 65th minute and Theo Le Bris pounced four minutes later.

"Once we were down to nine men, it was a match we could no longer control, a match where we unfortunately had to shut up shop," said Beye.

Last week's Rennes win provoked a brawl in the Marseille changing room that led to the south coast club initially showing red cards to two of its own players.

After the fight, between star French international Adrien Rabiot and English winger Jonathan Rowe, the club said they had put both players up for sale.

The English winger left on Sunday, bought by Bologna in Serie A.

Also on Sunday, Toulouse and Strasbourg continued their winning starts to the season.

Cameroon international Frank Magri struck twice in 13 minutes in the second half as Toulouse beat Brest 2-0.

Strasbourg captain Emanuel Emegha came off the bench at half-time to score the only goal in the 81st minute as they beat Nantes 1-0.

I.Ko--ThChM